Ashe Dryden

Biography

Ashe Dryden is an indie developer living in Madison, WI. She’s been involved with the web in some form or another over the course of the past 12 years. Ashe is known for being outspoken about the need for diversity, inclusiveness, and empathy. When she isn’t discussing technology, she’s cycling, tweeting, playing board games, debating the social implications of Star Trek episodes, being that awkward girl at the party, and waiting for her next burrito fix.

Sessions for this user

A few stories we will cover:
* 20% women attendees at PyCon US 2013
* 85% of JSConf attendees donated to women in open tech/culture
* The success of Black Girls Code
* Conferences with 100% white male speakers are now called out for not trying hard enough to find good speakers
* Mozilla's adoption of community guidelines that prevent advocacy of discrimination on Planet Mozilla and other Mozilla forums
* The rapid growth of PyLadies

It's been scientifically proven that more diverse communities and workplaces create better products and the solutions to difficult problems are more complete and diverse themselves. Companies are struggling to find adequate talent. So why do we see so few women, people of color, and LGBTQ people at our events and on the about pages of our websites? Even more curiously, why do 60% of women leave the tech industry within 10 years? Why are fewer women choosing to pursue computer science and related degrees than ever before? Why have stories of active discouragement, dismissal, harassment, or worse become regular news?